On August 26th 2022, a woman was arrested after hate-criming a group of Indian women in a parking lot in Texas.
In a video documenting the incident, the woman was yelling “You Indians are everywhere.” Understandably, this video ended up going viral.
However, one unexpected way the video went viral was through a “thirst trap,” a TikTok trend in which people showcase their good looks. In fact, if you search up the phrase, “You Indians are everywhere,” you will see TikTokers creating thirst traps.
Now, I am not here to police how people should respond to watching their own people get hate crimed. Nor am I here to bash on what people choose to post on their social media pages. In actuality, I admire the way people respond to hate in a way that works to bring our community up.
However, I also feel that in response to hate, it is not enough to just ask to be seen as beautiful. This is ultimately because of the role that I believe beauty plays when looking at race.
TikToker “talkwithjewlez” vocalizes the relationship that she has seen in her life in regards to beauty and race: “When I am seen as pretty, people do not make racist jokes about me. But the minute I no longer look ‘conventionally attractive:’ racist jokes.”
I have also faced racism in similar circumstances.
As a kid, my mom worked hard to make sure I was “cute” in a conventional sense: hair braided in pigtails and cute clothing. Even as a kid, I noticed that when I was all dressed up, nobody said anything racist towards me.
But, when my hair would become undone or I would come back from PE all sweaty, that is when I would hear things from my own classmates and teachers, saying that I “looked wild” and “smelled like curry.”
In fact, I still remember the day my 5th grade teacher gave a speech after PE Class about how all kids need to start using deodorant, while only keeping her eyes on me and the other Indian kid in my class.
This has been the case throughout my entire life. I notice it most often in airports. Whenever I go to the airport in sweats and messy hair, I am double checked by the TSA. When I am wearing nice clothing and I have my hair styled, I am not.
One of my other favorite TikTokers, “blindianproject,” raises the sentiment that I feel perfectly. “We are beautiful. But, our looks should not determine how palatable we are.”
At the end of the day, this is why I believe that thirst traps are not going to solve all of our problems.
The problem is not that Indians, or any person of color, are not seen as beautiful. The problem is that respect is seen as something that should be given on condition (one of these many conditions being beauty) when it should not be.